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[alway]

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/blueprint-battery-powered-robot-arm?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=8&con=blueprint-a-batterypowered-robot-arm

Our Titan Arm exoskeleton uses a motorized elbow joint to increase someone’s weight-lifting capacity by 40 pounds. When people see it, they always jump to thinking about Iron Man, but the idea is to give injured patients strength and to assist with their physical therapy.

The 18-pound suit goes on like a backpack. A repurposed scuba backplate holds the electronics and motor. Your arm straps into aluminum and 3-D–printed plastic pieces that run from your shoulder to wrist.

Unlike most exoskeletons currently on the market, our prototype is designed specifically for the upper body, and at $1,500, it costs less than many other suits.

$1500 is a pretty impressive price point, even for a single-arm exoskeleton. That's basically consumer-grade pricing.

[LordBucket]

And do you have anything at all to demonstrate that the pseudo-photoreceptive cells
on the pineal gland are receptive to anything outside the visible spectrum?

At some point, I would fall back on common sense rather than specific studies. What would be the biological function of cells inside the brain that were receptive exclusively to frequencies that can't penetrate the skull?

We know that there are photoreceptive cells in the brain. We know that various frequencies of electromagnetic radiation pass through the human body. Is it really such a stretch to guess that the frequencies that actually enter the brain would be the ones that the cells that detect these things are able to detect? Yes, maybe they're able to respond to visible light too...which is presumably why ear canal light therapy works.

But I just I don't see any reason to arbitrarily assume that cells we know are receptive to light are for some strange reason only receptive to the specific frequency ranges that don't reach them. I admit I'm having difficulty finding a study exactly and specifically demonstrating that non-viisble EMR affects the human pineal gland, however there are a number of animal studies:

Here are one and two in which pineal melatonin production in rats was affected by exposing them to gamma rays. Here's a simiilar study that  observed pinael effects in hamsters exposed to ultraviolet. And here's one for river lampreys.

Additionally, there are large numbers of studies concluding that em fields affect the human pineal gland:

Evidence for an effect of ELF electromagnetic fields on human pineal gland function (Paper in full)
A 0.5 G, 60 Hz magnetic field suppresses melatonin production in pinealocytes

So, I recognize that EM fields and EM radiation aren't the same thing, and when it comes to EMR it appears that the actual frequency ranges of receptivity vary by animal. So just because hamsters respond to certain UV ranges doesn't necessarily mean that humans respond to those same rangeso. But looking at the overall body of evidence...and again, the mere fact that we have these receptors at all...I think it's a pretty reasonable hypothesis.


Also, it takes a really long time to go digging up all these nih studies. Can't you people do your own google searches?

[WillowLuman]

All this over an eyebrow tingly feeling... this conversation should perhaps move to a different thread.

[crazysheep]

Sorry, just had to butt in on this:

Also, it takes a really long time to go digging up all these nih studies. Can't you people do your own google searches?

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/burden-of-proof

Very simply, the onus is upon the person making the claim, not the people disputing the claim, so you may have to forgive us for not looking for stuff.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

This shit is truly hilarious. I'd heard of some opposition to transhumanism coming from a religious basis before, but this is the first seriously written example of it I've encountered. Oh Rapture Ready, you never fail to amuse me with your insanity.

[Frumple]

Yeah, not too sure what to get out of that. The transhumanist movement is... going to propel our species to become like unto YHWH itself, a pinnacle of creation nigh onto capable of toppling the very heavens? And... this is a bad thing? What?

Sounds to me like this Gillette fellow is a xenoloving traitor. Throwing in with some kind of extra-physical alien entity instead of helping their people fight against the abhuman. Shameful.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That would make an interesting and instantly controversial movie.

"In 1882, Nietzsche wrote 'God is dead, and we have killed him'. He never knew how right he was. It is the year 2486, and humanity has grown into a power capable of shaking the very foundations of the universe itself. Now, at the pinnacle of our civilization, our so-called creator has come back to torment us all and reap what he has sown.

That motherfucker won't know what hit him."

STARING:

Nicholas Cage

-as-

Yahweh

-and-

David Hayter

-as-

The Ubermensch

-in-

DEICIDE

[BFEL]

Yeah, not too sure what to get out of that. The transhumanist movement is... going to propel our species to become like unto YHWH itself, a pinnacle of creation nigh onto capable of toppling the very heavens? And... this is a bad thing? What?

Sounds to me like this Gillette fellow is a xenoloving traitor. Throwing in with some kind of extra-physical alien entity instead of helping their people fight against the abhuman. Shameful.

He's not just a Xeno loving traitor.
Think about it.

The God he worships is a being that claims humanity is its children, then sees its children succeeding at things and says "no, bad! I'm the only one allowed to do things!" and then it drowns all its children in a bathtub.

The Christian God is CASEY ANTHONY

[misko27]

There is no way, even following his logic, for humanity to challenge God. He believes that humanity will "rebel", but what exactly this entails is not mentioned. Presumably it would have to do with humanity rejecting God, but this goes against his belief in a strictly literal interpretation, and would have nothing to do with transhumanism specifically. Therefore he believes that somehow humanity would physically challenge god, presumably using their SUPER TECHNOLOGY. This however goes against the basic idea of rejecting God (if you believe in God, and you're human, what could possibly be going through your head that you challenge him to a one-on-one), as well as the concept of Humans becoming powerful by following the rules God made (it's as if a video-game character in a game you made challenged you, knowing that he is a video-game character and all that implies.) He falls into the classic of "FOOLISH MORTALS DOING FOOLISH MORTAL THINGS" to justify. He doesn't understand Transhumanism.

He understands only hype, and he uses massive leaps of questionable logic from a straw-man's base to allow for his reactionary position.

[Bauglir]

To be fair, if I were a nigh-omnipotent superbeing and I learned that something besides myself and my kind existed that could legitimately be called God, of course I would try to punch its face from 11 directions at once. I mean, I assume that unimaginable action sequences would be a fairly tame greeting in a world where there could be no possible negative consequences from them.

[scrdest]

To be fair, if I were a nigh-omnipotent superbeing and I learned that something besides myself and my kind existed that could legitimately be called God, of course I would try to punch its face from 11 directions at once. I mean, I assume that unimaginable action sequences would be a fairly tame greeting in a world where there could be no possible negative consequences from them.

...why? Until said being would actually threaten anyone, this is basically murder.

[Naryar]

Transhumanism ? Hells yes, this is the most awesome thing ever. Let's control our evolution by genetic engineering.

To be fair, if I were a nigh-omnipotent superbeing and I learned that something besides myself and my kind existed that could legitimately be called God, of course I would try to punch its face from 11 directions at once. I mean, I assume that unimaginable action sequences would be a fairly tame greeting in a world where there could be no possible negative consequences from them.

...why? Until said being would actually threaten anyone, this is basically murder.

You are implying that human morality would apply to gods.

> Old Testament
> Greek myth
> Norse myth

[misko27]

Transhumanism ? Hells yes, this is the most awesome thing ever. Let's control our evolution by genetic engineering.

To be fair, if I were a nigh-omnipotent superbeing and I learned that something besides myself and my kind existed that could legitimately be called God, of course I would try to punch its face from 11 directions at once. I mean, I assume that unimaginable action sequences would be a fairly tame greeting in a world where there could be no possible negative consequences from them.

...why? Until said being would actually threaten anyone, this is basically murder.

You are implying that human morality would apply to gods.

> Old Testament
> Greek myth
> Norse myth

You're implying that being powerful makes you moral. Unless there is a personality-altering aspect of this I wasn't told of, the same humans that do all sorts of nasty things would simply be upgraded to better hardware. So if you find killing a sapient being wrong, then this changes nothing.

[Bauglir]

Why would being punched in the face kill God? If I've already verified its nigh-omnipotence, I'm reasonably confident that even complete physical obliteration would fail to destroy it, much less a mere hyperpunch. I'm skeptical that it would even be inconvenienced, which is why I expect action sequences to be a common form of greeting some day. They're just so much fun if nobody is physically capable of actually being hurt.

[alway]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/12/health/veteran-exoskeleton/index.html?hpt=hp_bn13
This is actually one of two stories on this particular product I've seen today. FDA approved them early last year, and now they're being used by quite a good number of people. Bionic exoskeletons to assist those unable to walk are here.

Which means in the past 2 years, the FDA has approved bionics to allow the blind to see and the crippled to walk.

Devices to allow the deaf to hear are also now commonplace. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant
At RIT, which has an institute for the deaf and hard of hearing, you will see a large number of people with them. There's actually an interesting perspective I heard at RIT, originating from some of the deaf/hard of hearing faculty, in regards to deaf culture potentially dying out as a result of normalizing technologies.

But anyway; SCIENCE: allowing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the crippled to walk. And that's only the beginning.